Un-Meat & Taters

I consider myself a steak-and-potatoes vegan. Not real steak, of course. That's gross. But I'll take a hearty plate of faux meat and potatoes over a veggie-based dish any day. What can I say? That may be the most calorie-laden choice or the least healthy one, but whatevs. I like to eat.

Take for example, my Dijon Pecan Seitan Medallions:

I've blogged about these before, and they're definitely going in my Southern vegan cookbook. The seitan is homemade, of course, and it's encrusted with chopped pecans and a delicious maple-soy butter glaze.

I enjoyed my seitan with an equally-hearty Twice-Baked Tater:

Another recipe for my cookbook, these taters are creamy and loaded with noochy, cheezy flavor. The melted vegan cheese on top is optional (as is vegan cheese in most of my recipes), but it certainly adds an element of awesomeness. I used Daiya Cheddar here.

Of course, I still needed to get my veggie group in. Potatoes are vegetables, but that's an awfully carby, starchy meal without some green. I tossed together this simple side salad of lettuce, cucumber, tomato, raspberry vinaigrette, and nooch.

Wanna hear something really gross? After I shot these pictures, I accidentally knocked the plate of seitan and potatoes off of my back porch railing (I take most of my pics outside on the porch for natural light). The plate landed upside down on top of my nasty, old unusable grill, sandwiching the food in between the overturned plate and the grill lid.

But I wasn't about to let this yumminess go to waste. So I quickly scooped the food up, picked off a few visible pieces of dirt, and ate it anyway. Five second rule, right?